


Rosalind Franklin

by AVirtoMusae



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluffy?, Gen, Mission Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 14:57:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15512328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVirtoMusae/pseuds/AVirtoMusae
Summary: The team has a mission involving Rosalind Franklin at Newnham College





	Rosalind Franklin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IncendiaGlacies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/gifts).



2018 — The New Bunker, Arizona

The first bunker had been cold. Underground, it had seemed to always be damp, and the moisture had permeated all of them. Lucy had taken to stealing Flynn’s sweaters in order to keep herself warm. His sweaters always seemed the warmest, and the man himself was practically a furnace all on his own. Once she had started slipping into his room for the night after that time with the bottle of vodka, she kept doing it. Curling up with him in bed was the easiest way for her to sleep. She had nightmares when she was cold, and she had seen enough that she had quite the fuel for them.

The new bunker was nothing like that. For one, it was in the desert, so it was always hot and always dry. Their air conditioner was prone to being a bit faulty, and usually it took hours for Connor, Jiya, and Rufus to fix, and no one had successfully convinced Agent Christopher to buy them a humidifier. Lucy suspected she didn’t only to spite Connor, who whined about the dry air being bad for his lungs more often than any of them liked. 

Currently, Lucy, Flynn, and Wyatt were left to their own devices while the techies were all working on the air conditioner. Lucy was sprawled across the leather couch. Every time she reached for her glass of water, she grimaced at the way her skin stuck to the couch. She steadfastly looked away from the other side of the common area where she could hear Wyatt and Flynn sparring. 

Ever since they had gotten back from Chinatown, Flynn had volunteered to spar with Wyatt as a way for the younger man to let off some steam. Lucy suspected it was more for his own benefit as a legitimate way to beat up Wyatt. Lucy flipped through channels until she found It Happened One Night on. She smiled. It was the first time she had really seen Flynn as someone she could commiserate with, and with it happening so quickly after Salem — well, she would have to mark it as the beginning of her falling in love with him. 

It took a minute before Flynn plopped down on the end of the couch where her feet were as though summoned by her thoughts. Lucy tried to kick him off the couch, but he was too solid. “Flynn,” she whined, “get off of the couch. It’s too hot for you to be on the couch with me.”

“You think I’m hot?” he teased just as Wyatt came and sat down on the fuzzy armchair in the corner. 

Wyatt glared at Flynn. “She has some taste.”

“Seriously though, could you just move off the couch? It’s miserable in here, and I don’t need you two arguing,” Lucy snapped. Overheating and dehydration always made her a little bit more irritable than she was otherwise. 

Flynn raised his eyebrows and smiled at her. He moved off the couch and sat down on the floor in front of it. He relocated himself closer to Lucy’s torso when he did so, and he leaned his head back on the couch so he could look up at her. 

…

Rufus might not have liked the outdoors, but he liked it even less when inside felt even hotter than the outside. And besides, he was a little nervous with the air conditioner. He could fix it all right. He’d fixed his mom’s plenty when he was a kid. It was just that this was Arizona, and he was terrified of scorpions, and it would be his luck for one of them to be hiding in either the air conditioning or the Lifeboat. 

But he was going to fix the damn air conditioner despite any possible scorpions because the heat was sweltering, and everyone was miserable. Jiya, at least, was not skittish about the scorpions. Jiya worked on the top of the air conditioner while Rufus crouched down near the bottom. Connor was with them also, but he was doing more drinking than actually helping because of course he was. 

Finally, when Connor started teasing him and Jiya about their love life and calling them Romeo and Juliet, Rufus had had enough. He was dehydrated, sweaty, and a tiny bit faint from the heat. He was miserable in the physical sense, but calling him and Jiya Romeo and Juliet crossed a line for him. From the way Jiya froze, he could tell it crossed a line for her as well. With Jiya having gotten stranded in Chinatown and Rufus dying to try to save her, the whole thing struck a little too close to home. 

Gently, Rufus took the bottle of whiskey from Connor’s hand and steered him back to his room. “Connor, you need to stop drinking, preferably before Agent Christopher decides to stage an intervention.” It was a weird thing, having to talk to Connor this way. He was used to the man who was on top of the world, even though that illusion was shattered almost a year ago. Connor was not invincible, and it seemed like that was more dumbfounding to him than anyone else.

“I’m useless,” Connor hissed. “I know what I said about continuing on, but this whole bloody mess is my fault.” Rufus stared at him and took a deep breath. “You died, and it’s my fault!” Rufus realized Connor was crying. “And I couldn’t get you back.”

Rufus blinked. Connor didn’t do that very much, and this had taken very little prompting. Rufus was aware that Connor’s self-esteem was masked by his smarmy attitude, but Rufus hadn’t been aware that Connor blamed himself for his death. Jiya blamed herself, he knew, and he had talked to her about it. Wyatt probably should have blamed himself for it, but he didn’t. Rufus had had a conversation with both of them, but somehow, he had forgotten Connor.

“Millennial here to kill the guilt industry. I’m here. We have to keep moving forward. We don’t have anything else. We don’t have time for guilt or whatever this is, okay? Now I’m taking this bottle, and we’re going to dump all the alcohol in here. Well, you and Wyatt will.” 

The klaxon started blaring.

Rufus paused for a second. “When we get back, apparently. I’m going to get Jiya to make sure you don’t do anything stupid in the meantime.”

1939 — Newnham College

Rosalind Franklin was going about her usual business, running the busy work that Ronald Norrish was having her do. He never seemed to know what exactly to do with her. She was wicked smart if she did say so herself, and well, she wasn’t appreciated here. She was stagnant, and she didn’t even care for this work. She sighed heavily as she flipped through the pages of the experiment she was looking over. She could not say that it was exactly in her usual range of interests or what she would have studied if she had her own choice. 

She ran a hand through her hair and rolled her eyes at what she thought was a particularly ill-thought-out paragraph and crossed the entire thing out. She tapped her ball-point pen on the desk and sighed again. 

She looked up when she heard someone clear their throat above her desk, grateful for the distraction from her work. She looked up to see a woman she didn’t recognize standing in front of her desk. The woman had on grey trousers, a blouse, and a tweed jacket. She had red hair that was curled under her hat. She was an imposing woman, and instinct told Rosalind to be wary of her. Curiosity won over wariness, and Rosalind tilted her head to the side. “Hello? Can I help you with something?”

The woman smiled. “I’m Emma. Rosalind Franklin, I presume.”

… 

Flynn and Rufus were in charge of stealing clothes while Lucy worked on getting her bearings on the town, and Wyatt kept watch. Flynn picked out clothes for himself and Lucy while Rufus focused on himself and Wyatt. Naturally, he picked out clothes in burgundy as it was not just his own favorite color but Lucy’s as well. And, admittedly, he did rather enjoy seeing her in that color. 

Just when they were about to leave, someone noticed Rufus because of course they did, and whatever random white shopper this was was not likely to enjoy having a Black man in a whites only store. Flynn took a deep breath. He had a gun, but whatever violence he used was likely to be blamed on Rufus, which would make the rest of their mission far more difficult than it needed to be. Flynn as an Eastern European was probably not going to be that much more welcome. 

Flynn motioned for Rufus to hide behind a display while Flynn dealt with the problem. He saw Rufus mouthing, “Flynn it up, Flynn,” but once again, Flynn ignored that. He was going to try to deal with the problem by talking to it. Lucy would be proud of him, he hoped. 

The man walked over to Flynn and jabbed a rude finger at him. “What're you doing here? This place doesn't open for another hour! Get out of here!”

Flynn shrugged. “Didn't look closed. Your lock didn't work.”

“Do I look like a bloody idiot?” the shopkeeper growled. Flynn shrugged, only earning a glare. “I know my locks work. You broke in here!”

Flynn sighed. “You could just let me leave, no harm done.”

“You're wearing some of my clothes. Do you have any idea how much that costs?!” the man glared. 

Flynn motioned for Rufus to run, and Rufus did. The shopkeeper started swearing and tried to run after Rufus. Flynn tackled the man to the ground before he could reach Rufus. Rufus stared back, startled, and thanked Flynn for helping. Flynn nodded and proceeded to knock the shopkeeper unconscious. 

The pair returned to Wyatt and Lucy. 

…

Lucy had not been the one to figure out why Rittenhouse was here. It made her feel useless. Rufus had figured it out fairly quickly because apparently Emma and Jiya had both been very into looking at female scientists — Sally Ride, Hedy Lamarr, Mae Jemison, and of course, Rosalind Franklin. He had recognized the location from Rosalind Franklin’s biography long before she would have figured it out. Lucy felt like a spare part even though she had lost everything she had to Rittenhouse, and not being able to do the one thing she was good at just felt like Rittenhouse was taking one last thing from her. It irked her. 

Lucy took a deep breath. Ideally, she would have gone with Rufus and Flynn to pick out clothes. She trusted Flynn to find clothing for her in this time period. Further back in time, he probably would have gotten her something a little too complicated and maybe a little too elegant, as though he thought she was a proper lady who needed the best of everything. She wouldn’t complain except for her dislike of getting those clothes off. She ignored the voice in her head saying she would not mind Flynn helping her with that.

Wyatt was watching her. As far as they could tell, everything was going about as usual and the only really interesting thing was Rosalind Franklin, and it seemed like it would be easy to find the young woman. “Lucy, are you okay?”

Wyatt had gotten his head out of his ass long enough to look at other people, apparently, and ask about their needs but not enough so that he could actually figure out their problems on his own. Lucy shrugged to answer him. She appreciated the gesture. “I’m just not sure why Emma would be going after Rosalind Franklin. Not exactly the political hero whatever — just seems more like Anthony disrupting the Moon Launch. I don’t get it.”

Wyatt shrugged, “Emma’s a different beast. Who the fuck knows?”

Lucy laughed and nudged his arm. “That she is. Come on, I think I see Flynn and Rufus. Let’s go get changed.”

…

The four of them strolled into the heart of the college like a fog bank rolling off a river. Rufus walked slightly behind Flynn, and Lucy walked between Flynn and Wyatt. They were walking with a purpose — finding Rosalind Franklin and making sure that Emma did not find her. Wyatt wondered what Emma could possibly want with her fellow scientist. 

Wyatt would have preferred to be more prepared for this, especially since this was not a situation where he could get away with shooting first and asking questions maybe. He still kept his hand on his gun. The college was pretty, and for a second, Wyatt found himself wishing he had had a chance to be somewhere like this for school. Being here on a mission tasted bitter. He wondered if Jessica were here, if she was having the same wishes that he was. Neither of them had really ever had a chance.

He sighed as they rounded the corner to where they had been told Rosalind worked. And, unsurprisingly, Rosalind was not there. That was just his luck.

Wyatt and Rufus both turned to Lucy, who was apparently holding Flynn's hand. She shook her head. “She's supposed to be here. Rufus and I will look around here while Flynn and Wyatt look for her around campus.”

All three men nodded. 

…

“I have a proposition for you,” Emma explained to Rosalind. She smiled. She had been like Rosalind once — underappreciated, frustrated, and genius — when Rittenhouse had given her an offer she could not refuse. It was not just power. It was mental stimulation, excitement, and knowledge beyond anything she could have hoped for otherwise. If Rosalind was anything like her, then there was no way she would let herself stagnate like she was. 

And, well, Emma’s plan worked. Rosalind Franklin was not content where she was and agreed to try the new job on a trial basis. Of course, the younger woman had no idea what Rittenhouse was, but they would get there eventually. She smirked. 

…

Flynn was not happy to say the least when they found Rosalind Franklin. Of course, that was mostly because she appeared to be willingly entering the Mothership behind Emma. So that was Emma’s new game, apparently — collecting scientists from history. He really should have known since Emma had talked. He facepalmed.


End file.
